Binh Ba's pristine and tranquil island

The pristine beach with smooth white sand and blue water stretching away to the horizon without human’s foot, a variety of colorful coral reefs together with the peaceful life of rustic locals are the specific features that makes a strong impression on tourists about pretty Island named Binh Ba. 

Just needing to spend about 2 hours on the boat from Ba Ngoi port, tourists will put their feet in this nice island. Binh Ba Island lies across Cam Ranh Bay as a screen to prevent the waves from East Sea pouring in. 



It is said that this island is not so noisy, busy and urbanized as surrounding areas such as Nha Trang and Mui Ne. Perhaps, if someone has opportunity to put his feet on this is land, it is strongly believed that he will never forget quiet space along with pure wild of the nature here. And this amazing attraction comes from the natural beauty of Bai Nom and Bai Chuong.

The island's most beautiful beach is Bai Nom. It is a bow-shape sandy beach, and two sides are solid rocks. The sand is so white. In this season, the waves are very intense. Just stood about five meters from the shore, tourists will be very hard to keep their foot away from the big waves.

 

 At the weekend, hundreds of guests go to the island and stopover at Bai Nom playing with the waves. Leaving Bai Nom, walking on the roads rising full of green trees and wildflowers, tourists will wallow in the quiet and pristine beach of Bai Chuong. 

Maybe, the attraction of Bai Chuong is really not because of the smooth white sand like Bai Nom, but comes from the beauty of splendid colorful coral reefs, iridescent shells, and undulating stones with diversified shapes on the sea and especially steep cliffs together with mysterious caves. 

 In addition, nothing is better than contemplate the beauty of sunrise, sunset and the moon in Binh Ba Island. Thus, it is not surprising when many tourists want to come back even once. 

Stunning Con Dao in visitors’ eyes in Vietnam

During the French colonial era, Con Dao known as Poulo Condore was served as a prison island for political prisoners now called “tiger cages”. Today, Con Dao is also an island of immense natural beauty with forest-covered hills, deserted sandy beaches and extensive coral reefs. To witness the remaining of the evilness of human, the number of foreign tourists coming there is increasing day by day.

Con Dao is not only the biggest archipelago in Ba Ria- Vung Tau province, but it is also the most famous one in Vietnam tourism. This archipelago contains 16 islands with the total size of 76 square kilometers, and Con Lon island is the largest among them. 

Con Dao is notable for its paradoxes, namely one of very few “Hell on Earth”- an evidence of a woeful but noble period of Vietnamese history on Con Dao islands, but nowadays Con Dao islands have become a paradise for both domestic and international visitors joining tours in Vietnam. This abnormal combination explains for astonishing looks at the island: the beauty of nature and the evilness of human.

The noted place in Con Dao is Con Dao prison – the place to jail prisoners in Vietnam War. Compared to Phu Quoc prison, Con Dao prison was still left behind in terms of torturing method variety, but it is well-known for a much longer history. Established in 1862 by French Colonists, Con Dao since then is known as a “Hell on Earth”; anyone arrested there would surely suffer the death painfully.

From 1862 to 1975, Con Dao captured and detained thousands of prisoners, mostly patriots. Con Dao prison conjures up a dark memory that makes everyone trembling when reminding of the past. In Con Dao, the French Colonists and American Army have built a system of torturing, beating and killing prisoners very slowly and painfully. They established some special departments to easily torture prisoners.

Female revolutionaries were sent to the Tiger Cages without water to bathe and lime and waste were poured onto them.

The most famous one is separated “tiger cages”, which once shocked American public in 1970s, with unbelievable methods applied to prisoners. These tiger cages are small basements built by stone with steel window on the top, with the aisles between basements for jailers and soldiers to guard and insult prisoners with dirty water and lime. 

Jailers even invented “sunbathe room”, known as the tiger cages with no roof to force people inside to suffer from the sun heat for days. Another noted invention is separated cow sheds, which had been used to keep cow inside, but jailers transformed them into rooms for prisoners. They kept prisoners among animals with very poor conditions.

After being tortured, prisoners had to stay out in the sun and rain.

More terribly, they sent some “dangerous” prisoners to the basements under the sheds and let them rot away due to the waste from the animals. Prisoners here were chained with cuffs all the time, and the foods was just enough for them to survive. 

The jailers beat prisoners whenever they wanted, and tortured them by different methods that could not be seen anywhere else, including taking teeth, nailing into body, burning, etc. Con Dao nowadays has become a dreadful museum for people to visit, but it still attracts many tourists to witness the remaining of the evilness of human. It could be a useful and interesting history lesson for all adventurous tourists.

After 36 years of liberation, Con Dao archipelago is extremely stunning in tourists' eyes with green grass field, beautiful rivers, high mountains, lovely climate and fresh air; it is a poetic picture of natural beauty. Opposite with the trembling fears from Con Dao prison, the wildlife of Con Dao brings peace and comfort to tourists in Vietnam travel.

Con Dao has now become a paradise for visitors in Vietnam tourism.

Con Dao island is now gentle with smooth sandy beaches, which brings comfort to tourists.